The World Until Yesterday

The World Until Yesterday
Author: Jared Diamond
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 727
Release: 2012-12-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1101606002

The bestselling author of Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel surveys the history of human societies to answer the question: What can we learn from traditional societies that can make the world a better place for all of us? “As he did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond continues to make us think with his mesmerizing and absorbing new book." Bookpage Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence. Societies like those of the New Guinea Highlanders remind us that it was only yesterday—in evolutionary time—when everything changed and that we moderns still possess bodies and social practices often better adapted to traditional than to modern conditions.The World Until Yesterday provides a mesmerizing firsthand picture of the human past as it had been for millions of years—a past that has mostly vanished—and considers what the differences between that past and our present mean for our lives today. This is Jared Diamond’s most personal book to date, as he draws extensively from his decades of field work in the Pacific islands, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others. Diamond doesn’t romanticize traditional societies—after all, we are shocked by some of their practices—but he finds that their solutions to universal human problems such as child rearing, elder care, dispute resolution, risk, and physical fitness have much to teach us. Provocative, enlightening, and entertaining, The World Until Yesterday is an essential and fascinating read.

African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society

African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society
Author: Jacob Olupona
Publisher: Paragon House
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998-04-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780892260799

Once relegated to the realm of "primitive" and stigmatized as "pagan," today there is a new acknowledgment of the importance of African traditional religions, especially in its stress on folk practices, communal values, and personal relationships. This volume of fourteen chapters examines the nature, structure, and significance of African traditional religion(s) as dynamic, changing tradition(s). It analyzes and interprets several significant aspects of African religions and explores their possible contributions to national development and the modernization process. It also examines the impact of social change on African religion today. The contributors are scholars from several disciplines (anthropology, sociology, history of religions, theology, literature and the arts); yet, in analysis and interpretation of their data, they all take transcendence and the sacred in African thought very seriously. The newness of this approach is in treating African traditional religion not as a fossil but rather as one of the most important building blocks of modern African life.

Modernity in Indian Social Theory

Modernity in Indian Social Theory
Author: A. Raghuramaraju
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2010-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199088365

Unlike the West, India presents a fascinating example of a society where the pre-modern continues to co-exist with the modern. Modernity in Indian Social Theory explores the social variance between India and the West to show how it impacted their respective trajectories of modernity. A. Raghuramaraju argues that modernity in the West involved disinheriting the pre-modern, and temporal ordering of the traditional and modern. It was ruthlessly implemented through programmes of industrialization, nationalism, and secularism. This book underscores that India did not merely the Western model of modernity or experience a temporal ordering of society. It situates this sociological complexity in the context of the debates on social theory. The author critically examines various discourses on modernity in India, including Partha Chatterjee’s account of Indian nationalism; Javeed Alam’s reading of Indian secularism; the use of the term pluralism by some Indian social scientists; and Gopal Guru’s emphasis on the lived Dalit experience. He also engages with the readings on key thinkers including Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Gandhi, and Ambedkar.

Young People and Social Change

Young People and Social Change
Author: Andy Furlong
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2006-12-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0335229751

Reviews of the first edition “Not only does the clarity of the authors’ writing make the book very accessible, but their argument is also illustrated throughout with a broad range of empirical material … undoubtedly a strong contribution to the study of both contemporary youth and ‘late-modern’ society.” Youth Justice “A very accessible, well-evidenced and important book … It succeeds in raising important questions in a new and powerful way.” Journal of Education and Work “the book will be very popular with students and with academics…..The clarity of the organization, expression and argument is particularly commendable. I have no doubt that Young People and Social Change will rightly find its way onto the recommended reading lists of many in the field.” Professor Robert MacDonald, University of Teesside A welcome update to one of the most influential and authoritative books on young people in modern societies. With a fuller theoretical explanation and drawing on a comprehensive range of studies from Europe, North America, Australia and Japan, the second edition of Young People and Social Change is a valuable contribution to the field. The authors examine modern theoretical interpretations of social change in relation to young people and provide an overview of their experiences in a number of key contexts such as education, employment, the family, leisure, health, crime and politics. Building on the success of the previous edition, the second edition offers an expanded theoretical approach and wider coverage of empirical data to take into account worldwide developments in the field. Drawing on a wealth of research evidence, the book highlights key differences between the experiences of young people in different countries in the developed world. Young People and Social Change offers a wide-ranging and up-to-date introductory text for students in sociology of youth, sociology of education, social stratification and related fields.

The Division of Labor in Society

The Division of Labor in Society
Author: Émile Durkheim
Publisher: Digireads.com
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781420948561

mile Durkheim is often referred to as the father of sociology. Along with Karl Marx and Max Weber he was a principal architect of modern social science and whose contribution helped established it as an academic discipline. "The Division of Labor in Society," published in 1893, was his first major contribution to the field and arguably one his most important. In this work Durkheim discusses the construction of social order in modern societies, which he argues arises out of two essential forms of solidarity, mechanical and organic. Durkheim further examines how this social order has changed over time from more primitive societies to advanced industrial ones. Unlike Marx, Durkheim does not argue that class conflict is inherent to the modern Capitalistic society. The division of labor is an essential component to the practice of the modern capitalistic system due to the increased economic efficiency that can arise out of specialization; however Durkheim acknowledges that increased specialization does not serve all interests equally well. This important and foundational work is a must read for all students of sociology and economic philosophy.